I never really believed that I could lose the weight. And therein lied the problem. I never tried hard ENOUGH. Well I was WRONG. I could lose weight. But it only occured when I changed my frame of mind. I finally realized that I could indeed change my weight. It was within my power. It was within my control. The thing is you have to want it badly enough. Really, really badly enough. I know that that sounds simple. But that is what it boils down to. You need to make the decision to lose the weight. You have to be willing to give up certain things in hopes of gaining a better, healthier and happier life. The rewards are just so incredibly great that any sacrifices are more then worth it. And it doesn't take getting all the way to goal to realize that. The benefits come way, way, way sooner. You will start looking and feeling so much better just 15 lbs or so into your journey. Those early benefits will motivate you and propel you to go further.
Some things to start with:
- Make a simple journal. Write all the reasons why you want to lose the weight. Write your goals and dreams in it. Refer to it often, whenever you feel the urge to eat. Add to it as need be. Keep a weight log in there as well.
-Empty your house of all junk food. Stock it with healthy foods. If a craving hits, well then you'll just have to suffice with a couple of cucumbers. That can't do too much damage.
-Elminate the foods you crave the most and have no discipline with. If you have no discipline with them, well then you're probably better off without them all together. I know that sounds crazy. But by doing this, within a few weeks time, oddly enough you will no longer crave them. It's true! Within a short time, you won't even miss it.
-Plan ahead. This is vital. I map out my menus for a week ahead of time. This way there are no surprises come meal time. Make every meal/snack a good choice. Low fat proteins, high fiber, lots of fresh fruits and veggies, whole grains. Foods in their most natural state. No adding on unneeded calories. Find foods that YOU like. Check out all the various forums here at 3FC for food plans. Experiment.
-Drink lots of water. This will help keep you full, keep you hydrated and keep your mouth busy. Get into the habit. It's a good one to have.
-Add exercise and activity to your day. In the beginning I started out slowly with exercise and increased as I went on. Take a 20 minute walk 5 x a week. Gradually increase the minutes. Gradually increase other exercise as well. Get off the couch. Get some fitness DVDs. Make this as important as brushing your teeth. You wouldn't dream of skipping that.
-You go off track, oh well, it happens to all of us. Don't let one bad meal derail you. The entire day IS NOT SHOT. Don't beat yourself up over it. Don't let it turn into a day or days or G-d forbid a week. Times a wastin'. You need to get back with the program.
-Track your calories on line if you like. Those pesky little suckers have a way of adding up, even when eating only healthy foods. And don't ADD on calories if you exercise. That would be counterproductive.
-Find things other then food to keep you busy. Food is not there for entertainment, consolement or anger management. Read, write, journal, watch TV, exercise, do your nails, straighten up your house, take a bath, knit, talk on the phone, go to your computer.
-Take your love of food and make it into a positive. Read up on nutrition, find low cal recipes. Plan ahead.
-Stick with 3FC and the 100lb club. There are lots of people here in the same exact situation as you, all in various stages of our journeys. There are great threads there that will help keep you accountable and motivated. Join in.
-Get excited. Because it's EXCITING. Every time you pass up the "bad" food, you are getting closer to a better YOU. Don't look at it as what you are giving up, the high quantity/high calorie food. Look at it as what you are GAINING. A happier, healthier, fitter, more productive life. Full of much, much, MUCH more joy and waaaay less worries. A better life is well within your grasp. You've just got to reach out for it. It's there. I promise you.
-I thought I was addicted to food. Maybe I was, maybe I wasn't. This much I can tell you - I am way more "addicted" to the weightloss and all the wonderful things it brings about, then I ever was the food. And you will be too.
Good luck to you. You absolutely, positively CAN do this. Eating less and moving more will result in weightloss. Say it over and over again if you need to. Eating less and moving more will result in weightloss.
Robin, you really do rock! Your posts are always so inspiring. I've hit some sort of plateau and have been pretty frustrated this week. I needed to read your response here. It pumped me back up and put me back in the right frame of mind to keep plugging away at my goals and my dreams.
Robin, that has got to be the most informative, caring, inspiring response EVER! It was enough to bring me out of lurkdom to make my first post. You've inspired me a LOT with your reply. So much so that I'm going to print it out.
I lost 75 lbs by concentrating on eating foods with powerful nutritional benefits and avoiding foods with limited nutritional benefits. I eat a lot of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, I also eat lean protein, low fat dairy and healthy fats (especially nuts!).
I avoid fast food, sugar sodas, packaged baked goods and I try to limit booze (although I love the occasional glass of red wine) and "white" carbs (I would rather eat a sweet potato than a white potato, or brown rice instead of white rice, although I don't think there's anything really BAD about white potatoes and white rice, I just prefer to eat the healthier versions if possible).
All of my grandparents died much too young, I want to do everything possible to live a long, healthy, happy life. I really like the idea of foods as disease preventatives (spinach for the eyes, blueberries for the brain, tomatoes for the skin, yogurt for the gut).
Along the way, I discovered I LOOOOVED healthy foods, I mean really really like them. I loved baked sweet potatoes, I love blackberries, I love whole grain toast with natural peanut butter. I am very happy to eat this way, I feel great, tons of energy!
I need to lost 100 lbs. plus a few .. I've been successful with excercising and drinking protein shakes in the past...
I just wanted to add something. I have lost and regained weight many times in the past. The biggest and BEST thing I ever did this time was think LONG TERM. Not just losing weight, but losing weight and keeping the weight off. That meant I had to find something that I could do...forever. No start, no stop, just changing how I ate forever.
You said you've lost weight with protein shakes in the past, why didn't the weight stay off? If you lose weight with protein shakes again, will the weight stay off?
I had to really look at my "diet" history and analyze what worked and what did not work. Any kind of temporary diet had temporary results. For me, it was a personal moment of crystal clarity when I realized that I could not diet short term and expect long term weight loss. I wanted to do a little diet and then eat normal. I had to come to terms with the fact that my "normal" is what made me heavy. I had to change normal.
Losing weight is very difficult and important but it is only a small component of long term weight loss success. This time, I changed how I ate forever and I love it! It was actually much easier than I ever thought it would be. If you had told me 3 years ago I would be adding cut up strawberries to organic plain non fat yogurt for a snack instead of hitting the cafe downstairs for a venti caramel latte with whip and a scone, I would have told you you were crazy!
I changed, my taste buds changed and I lost almost 75 lbs and have kept it off for 2 years. It is still amazing to me!!
Good luck with your weight loss journey, think of it as a lifetime journey
Glory you are always inspiring. You are the reason I read SuperFoods and have finally changed my way of thinking after 46 years.
Robin I love your posts. They are always so positive. THANK YOU BOTH.
Robin, that has got to be the most informative, caring, inspiring response EVER! It was enough to bring me out of lurkdom to make my first post. You've inspired me a LOT with your reply. So much so that I'm going to print it out.
Hi and welcome!!!! I am so very glad we've pulled you out of lurkdom. That makes me extremely HAPPY. Lurkdom's no fun. Jump right on in and get involved. Print the post, read it and most importantly BELIEVE it. You don't have to be fat. Nobody does. When I finally got my "head together" I was relieved. This was before I even lost a pound. I was EXCITED. I knew that the end of my being morbidly obese was in sight. I knew that better days were just ahead. That's the way I looked at it. I knew it. I just knew it in my heart.
And Glory's 100% right (no shock there). Your tastes will change. I LOVE all the healthy food that I eat now. This is something that I can live with forever, which is of course super, duper essential. I feel ths same way as Glory. If you would have told me years ago that I would actually PREFER Kashi Go Lean cereal to say, Frosted Flakes or grilled chicken cutlets instead of fried, I would have told you were absolutely insane. So yes, I too LOVE what and how I eat now. My old eating habits were something I was so ashamed of and had to hide from the world, that is no longer the case. It doesn't happen overnight, but honestly, it doesn't take much longer then that. Who knew?
Last edited by rockinrobin; 05-21-2007 at 07:46 PM.
while i'm only half way through my journey (and i've lost about 50 pounds) I can tell you that so far so good.
these are the things I've learned
1. eat a good breakfast
2. whole grains (brown rice, sweet potatoes, whole wheat pasta, quiona) are better than white stuff
3. DRINK as much water as you can stand
4. moderate amounts of good fats (EVOO, Smart Balance or Canola oil, also olives and avocados in small amounts) are important for skin hair and satiety.
5. get some exercise 5 days a week. (build up to this but cardio and strength training really do help)
7. be forgiving of slips. this is not about perfection. it's about the journey and the learning. so some days are diamonds and some days are rust. just don't use every slip as a chance to slip some more. use every slip as a learning experience and get right back on whatever plan you are on.
8. pick a plan you can live with for life. I'm doing south beach because it made sense to me. and so far it's been a year and it's basically working
9. don't undereat. find out what your bmr is and plan accordingly. My BMR is about 1900. to lose 1 pound per week i need to eat 500 calories per day less than that so that leaves me 1200. BUT i burn about 1000 calories at the gym 3-5 times per week so I add back those 1000 calories less 200 for a total of about 2000 calories per day...
10 have patience. this will not be a quick process. besides you have to do it for the rest of your life.... the longer it takes to take it off the better it is.
9. don't undereat. find out what your bmr is and plan accordingly. My BMR is about 1900. to lose 1 pound per week i need to eat 500 calories per day less than that so that leaves me 1200. BUT i burn about 1000 calories at the gym 3-5 times per week so I add back those 1000 calories less 200 for a total of about 2000 calories per day...
10 have patience. this will not be a quick process. besides you have to do it for the rest of your life.... the longer it takes to take it off the better it is.
Ladybug, you are doing a PHENOMENAL job, without a doubt. One year on plan is just amazing. You make some excellent points and have given great advice.
There are just a couple of things that I would like to mention. Many people and of course that's not all people, but again many people when they decide to take upon exercise they usually don't count the calories that the exercise burns and then decide that they can therefore eat that amount of calories EXTRA. Obviously Ladybug it's working for you and I'm sure you're not the only one who holds to that method. For most, that would be counter productive. The idea is to usually create more of a deficit, not even the playing field. I know lots of people find those estimates of calories burned highly, highly inaccurate and I really would caution anyone to be very careful of falling into the trap of actually adding calories to your day based on what those calories burned counters tell you.
Just one other thing I must disagree with you on. That the longer it takes to come off the better. We all lose at different paces and that is absolutely 100% fine. There is no "correct" amount of time to lose your weight in.
Last edited by rockinrobin; 05-21-2007 at 07:52 PM.
Just one other thing I must disagree with you on. IMO, there is no truth to the matter that the longer it takes to come off the better. We all lose at different paces and that is absolutely 100% fine. There is no "correct" amount of time to lose your weight in.
I think that when people say this, they are talking in more general terms. In general, the types of eating and levels of exercise that you have to do to lose weight at a very fast pace are not sustainable for most people. Also, the faster weight is being lost, the harder it is to maintain muscle mass at the same time (again, not impossible, but harder). Long term studies have shown that loss maintenance is more probable when weight loss was slow (1-2 lb per week), and that people who lose faster than that ARE more likely to put the weight back on. That does not mean we have a causation relationship - losing weight quickly does not CAUSE the weight to be put back on quickly. But it is correlated with putting weight back on quickly.
At first, I ate strictly whole-no-nonsense-close-to-the-ground-organic-power foods. I did that for the first few months, until my tastes had truly acclimated to the new types of foods and I realized that I was starting to -crave- salads like I once craved fast food. No baked goods, very few processed foods, and I cooked darned near every meal. Developed some wonderful low-cal staples that are still in my arsenal today, and learned a whole new way of living. Very little to no alcohol at all. Basically, I was aiming to get the absolute lowest calories that I could be satisfied on, of whole foods, without any flexibility. I think I needed that lack of flexibility to get my mind in a whole new place, and I'm glad I did. I also ramped up my exercise exponentially.
Then I started to relax a little bit. Now that I was a person who craved salads and didn't crave junk, I made room in my plan for little indulgences. Not entire days, entire meals, or even entire portions of a food - but if the food was relatively healthy and it wasn't a trigger food for me, I started allowing it in in small portions, while still keeping a close eye on total calories. A glass of wine, every once in a while, ok. Freshly baked bread, fine, as long as I baked it or controlled the portion, and preferably it was whole grain. This approach is working for me, and I am still losing. It is a little slower, but I'm OK with that...I am not racing anyone but myself and I am much happier for it and enjoying my food a lot more. A great example of this - I love roasted asparagus. I had been roasting with a little bit of PAM and salt/pepper. One day, I tried it with a tbsp of olive oil instead of the PAM. WOW! What a difference. for 30 calories of healthy fat, I added -so- much flavor and made the food all that more enjoyable. Another example - I started crumbling a laughing cow wedge or a few tablespoons of goat cheese on my salads....a small "indulgence" calorie-wise, but a HUGE impact taste-wise.
I also started to focus more on specific nutrients. For me, I wanted to aim toward getting more protein and fiber, as well as plenty of calcium. I've acheived these goals for the most part, and continue to every day. But if I had tried to do that in the beginning, I would have gotten overwhelmed. I had to get the good habits lodged in my brain - lots of water, lots of whole foods, lean proteins, few processed foods, whole grains, and lots and lots and lots of fruits and veggies. Once those habits were lodged firmly in my brain, I could move onto other goals - more protein, more fiber, more healthy fats, etc.
Think of it like this...if you have never exercised before, the idea of running a marathon is so overwhelming you feel like you'll never acheive it...you can't even imagine it. But you can imagine walking. You start by walking a mile or two, or less. Then you start jogging intervals in with your walking. Then you start jogging longer and longer intervals until you're running the whole time...after that, you start increasing your distances or decreasing your speeds. You might add some strength training. At that point, running a marathon ISN'T all that overwhelming...but only because you took baby steps to get there.
Amanda, we just had this discussion on another thread. IMO, the weight will come roaring back on if when you hit your goal weight regardless of the time it took you if you go back to your old ways. The ways that made you obese in the first place. If you've lost your weight through healthy measures and incorportated healthy habits into your life and then of course STICK with it, then there is really no reason for the weight to come back on.
I also believe that when the so called experts are talking about a safe weight loss of 1 -2 lbs per week, that they really aren't speaking about the morbidly obese. That really is a whole other matter.
Again, there really is no one correct way to lose weight.
This is a great thread full of wonderful advice, but I have to answer your original question because I have a different answer than most people do and I want you to at least know that my way IS an option. I haven't lost 100 yet, but I've lost 92 so I'm pretty close.
What did I eat to lose 100 pounds? Anything I wanted. I just didn't go over my calorie range (well, I do on SOME days, but it's very rare). When I started, I was eating around 1800 calories, and now I'm eating around 1400.
What did you eat (or not eat) to lose 100lbs.?
You've inspired me a LOT with your reply. So much so that I'm going to print it out. 
